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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Chalabi quits after US raid |
| 2004-05-21 |
| A LEADING member of the Iraqi Governing Council, Ahmed Chalabi, cut ties with the US-led coalition after a police and military raid on his house, as President George W. Bush sought to ease Republican fears over Iraq’s future. But new photos of abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison, a report of abuses at another secret facility, and accusations - strongly denied by the US military - that 41 people celebrating a wedding were killed in a US air raid cast fresh shadows over the US occupation. US forces were also involved in fierce clashes with militiamen loyal to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in the Shiite holy city of Najaf. Chalabi, once the darling of the Pentagon, said his relations with the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) were "non-existent" after Iraqi police and US troops stormed his house and office, confiscating files and computers. Chalabi said after the overnight attack on his complex in Baghdad that the governing council would hold emergency talks today to discuss a response. "I am America’s best friend in Iraq; if the CPA finds it necessary to direct an armed attack against my home you can see the state of relations between the CPA and the Iraqi people," he said. Coalition spokesman Dan Senor dodged questions about the raids, saying they had been "Iraqi-led" and that "Chalabi has worked closely with us over a number of months" to rebuild the country. Washington has sought to distance itself from Chalabi, a secular Shiite Muslim, in recent months amid claims his Iraqi National Congress (INC) fed false information to the US government before the March 2003 US-led invasion. In Washington, the Pentagon said Wednesday it had halted its monthly payments of $US340,000 to the INC and would seek other intelligence sources on Iraq. A report commissioned by the US Congress said the INC had received about $US33 million from the US between March 2000 and September 2003, in part to set up regular television broadcasts beamed at the Iraqi interior. But because of distrust between the INC and the State Department, the money was disbursed in short-term and irregular increments, short-circuiting efforts to realise the goal of the money, the General Accounting Office said. Meanwhile, Bush made a rare visit to Congress to rally fellow Republicans rattled by the Iraq unrest and polls showing him in trouble ahead of the November 2 elections. Lawmakers emerging from the closed-door session described Bush as optimistic about his re-election bid and determined to return Iraq to self-rule June 30. "The President was upbeat," said Senator Rick Santorum. "He talked about Iraq, about getting the budget passed, and assured the June 30 handover to the Iraqis." Recent opinion polls show Bush’s job approval ratings at the lowest levels of his presidency. Bush has apologised for the Abu Ghraib scandal but it resurged with the release of two new photographs of US troops with a dead Iraqi. In the images, US soldiers identified as Specialist Charles Graner and Specialist Sabrina Harman are seen grinning with their thumbs up as they stand over the corpse of an Iraqi detainee lying on a black bag. The two are among the seven US guards at Abu Ghraib already charged with prisoner abuse. One, Jeremy Sivits, was sentenced to a year in jail on Wednesday in the first court-martial over the affair. The Defence Department is also investigating claims that US troops violated the Geneva Conventions interrogating Iraqis at a top-secret jail near Baghdad’s airport, US television NBC News reported, citing two senior government officials. Coalition military leaders also scoffed at another potential scandal, saying US troops attacked a suspected safe house used by foreign fighters, killing 41 people. Residents of the western desert town of Qaim, near the Syrian border, said US helicopters targeted a district early Wednesday where a wedding was being held. The US military has agreed to investigate the incident, Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, the coalition’s military spokesman, said, stressing the attack was based on intelligence that insurgents were gathering in the remote desert region. "How many people go to the desert 16km from the Syrian border and hold a wedding many miles from the nearest city?" Marine Major General James Mattis asked. The strike however prompted swift concern from the International Committee of the Red Cross about the use of force by the US military. "We are concerned about the excessive use of force which violates international human rights," Nada Dumani, the ICRC spokeswoman in Baghdad, said. "Even if (you come under) fire, there are rules of proportion in retaliation and the absolute need to prevent civilian casualties." |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #3 "I am America’s best friend in Iraq; if the CPA finds it necessary to direct an armed attack against my home you can see the state of relations between the CPA and the Iraqi people," Chalabi said. Just a weird coincidence, but didn't Nick Berg's moonbat father say that al Qaeda (or the Iraqis) lost their "best friend" when they beheaded his son? |
| Posted by: Tibor 2004-05-21 11:32:59 AM |
| #2 I must admit to being somewhat puzzled that someone is going to all that trouble to take incriminating photos. If you're doing stuff you don't want people to know about, you don't take pictures of it, because people are going to see it. Not a conspiracy theory, mind you, just something I find strange. |
| Posted by: The Doctor 2004-05-21 9:48:19 AM |
| #1 "cast fresh shadows over the US occupation" What has this got to do with the subject of the article? Every seemingly negative event in Iraq is depicted as evidence of an imagined looming disaster. This meme is hammered into the public perception every minute of every day and it is not likely that it can be countered by facts. Only those people who don't let their imaginations and fears dominate them will have the presence of mind see through the BS. I hope there are enough of us to prevail. |
| Posted by: virginian 2004-05-21 9:04:24 AM |